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Parenting

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Original poster

Introducing bottle to breastfed 5 month old - Success stories wanted!

12 replies

TealGreen4321 · 03/04/2023 19:53

If you have successfully introduced bottle feeding to a breastfed baby, please could you tell me how you did it?! I'm particularly hoping to hear from anyone who did it with a 5 or 6 month old.

My 5 month old is exclusively breastfed at the moment. I'm due to attend a wedding in mid June, and planning to leave baby overnight with grandparents - he'll be 7 months old by then. So between now and then I need to get him taking a bottle.

My husband's tried a few times this week, with a couple of different bottles/teats, but baby is having none of it so far. I appreciate it's early days and that we need to be persistent and try different techniques, but I'm also reading lots of negative accounts of babies who refused to ever take a bottle, so I'm really hoping for a few positive success stories to focus on!

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Spyrothedragon23 · 03/04/2023 19:59

This is what worked for us:

breastfed first then try to give them an oz in the bottle once they are nearly done. Less likely to reject as they aren’t getting annoyed it’s different when starving.
assuming it’s breast milk warm it up to body temp and to begin with i would say only mum should bottle feed until they got the hang of it.
if its formula my baby rejected this, so mixed a bit of formula into the breast milk like 1:8 ratio then slowly changed the ratio over time to get them to take formula.

6namechang3 · 03/04/2023 20:14

My son refused a bottle, but would accept a sippy cup at about 6 months.

3ormorecharacters · 03/04/2023 20:19

I posted a thread on this very recently as my 4.5 month old was refusing a bottle. I finally had success yesterday by making the formula up from powder and serving it warm - had previously been giving the premade stuff and giving it at room temperature.

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DragonbornMum · 03/04/2023 21:51

Sorry, no bottle success here, but we got on really well with a cup. Totally open or (freeflow) sippy cups both worked really well for my son, even at that age, so IMO definitely worth trying.

If you get a few different styles of sippy cup to see which suits your baby; you'll almost definitely use them in the future when it comes to weaning, so it won't be a waste of money.

Original poster

TealGreen4321 · 04/04/2023 10:54

Thank you so much for the suggestions!

If we don't get anywhere with bottles I'll definitely try a sippy cup. Currently he's not remotely interested in putting anything in his mouth unless it's a boob or his own fist...

OP posts:

Littlebean13 · 04/04/2023 11:01

Try feeding him with a pace feeding technique (lots of good demo videos on YouTube) it will help him to be more in control of the pace he can feed at. I’d also agree with a pp and mum do most of the first feeds until he starts to get the hang of it.
Also I’ve heard lots of people say that the best bottles they found for getting breastfed babies to take a bottle is those cheap unbranded supermarket ones so that might be worth a try!

Moonlightsonatas · 04/04/2023 11:08

Are you around when your husband is feeding the baby? My baby could sense when I was there and would hold out for boob. If I went out of the house, she would have the bottle.

You might also need to play around with different bottle teats and types of milk - if you are giving formula you can get single serving pre-made bottles to see which your baby prefers.

Original poster

TealGreen4321 · 05/04/2023 03:52

So far it's been my husband trying to give the bottle, but I've been nearby and probably need to make more effort to remove myself from the room! However, it's interesting that some people say it should be me doing the feeding at first until he gets the hang of it..

Haven't heard of pace feeding but will look up some videos - thanks for the tip!

OP posts:

Youreastar · 05/04/2023 05:20

I introduced a bottle at 12 months so a different age. Baby refused the bottle until I flavoured the milk by dipping an organic fruit tea in it. I reduced the flavouring over 2 days until he was just having milk. Might not work though if your baby has not been weaned. Not the best method but I was desperate as he refused every other method I tried.

BabyB2022 · 06/04/2023 01:12

We tried to introduce bottles to my eldest about 6 months and she refused until we tried Lansinoh bottles. She finally accepted that one happily, initially taking it from my husband but then would take it fine from me a short while after.

Lozzylou1 · 12/09/2023 21:49

Hi. Which sippy cup did you use?

Jamontoast1 · 11/01/2024 15:23

Hi - how did it go? My friends trying to get her DS to accept a bottle, he’s 4.5 months and currently refuses and she needs him to take one for a hen do she has committed to going to.

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